Everything a producer needs.
Booking bio, fast facts, suggested topics, photography and prior coverage, all in one place.
The same man in both. One of these is the job. The other is where the job learned to hold its nerve.
Fast facts.
Businesses
Founder of Ricochet Business Solutions. Co-owner of Raleigh Cleaning Company with his wife Nina, who founded it. Founder of Hazelwood Insurance Group.
Started at 18
Entered the insurance industry at 18 and founded his own agency at 21.
Best of the Best ×10
Raleigh Cleaning Company has won Best of the Best ten consecutive times.
Measurable outcomes
Scheduling decisions that took 45 minutes to an hour by hand now take seconds. An 18 percent sales increase with no added salaried headcount. Staff retention moved from months to years.
Certified and speaking
John Maxwell certified leader. Has spoken publicly on business automation and AI implementation, leadership under stress, organizing sales teams, and more.
Based in
South Hill and La Crosse, Virginia, in Mecklenburg County, and Wake Forest, North Carolina.
The reason for the systems.
Derek is married to Nina Hazelwood, who founded Raleigh Cleaning Company and co-owns it with him. They have four children.
The origin of the consulting work is domestic, not commercial. He was putting in 14 to 16 hour days behind a screen and losing the time he wanted at home, so he built the systems to get it back. Everything he now sells to other owners started as a fix for his own week.
How to introduce him.
Business consultant and AI implementation specialist
Fixes broken systems for service businesses, then implements the automation that keeps them fixed. Hiring, recruiting and sales first.
Entrepreneur
Three companies of his own, the first started at 21. Still runs all of them.
Musician and singer
Started drums as a child, picked up guitar later, still leads worship.
Photographer, designer, builder
Shoots, designs and builds the things his companies need rather than outsourcing them.
Fire service
Years with South Hill Volunteer Fire Department, working up to lieutenant and later instructing. The full story →
Copy this.
Derek Hazelwood is the founder of Ricochet Business Solutions, a business consulting firm focused on helping service businesses improve their operations, sales processes, hiring, and growth strategies. Derek began his entrepreneurial journey in the insurance industry at 18 and founded Hazelwood Insurance Group at 21. He is also the co-owner of Raleigh Cleaning Company alongside his wife Nina, a residential and commercial cleaning company that has earned Best of the Best recognition for 10 consecutive years. Before focusing on entrepreneurship and consulting, Derek spent years as a firefighter, rising to lieutenant and later serving as an instructor, where he trained others in leadership and decision making under pressure. A John Maxwell certified leader, Derek combines lessons from entrepreneurship, emergency response, and business ownership to help leaders build stronger companies, create better systems, and achieve greater freedom.
Ten angles.
- →Turning your lowest moments into your credential
- →Stop building a job for yourself
- →Broken systems, not a lack of effort
- →A company that runs without you in every decision
- →Leadership under real pressure
- →The hiring mistakes that cost the most
- →Systems and process as a performance tool
- →Reclaiming the owner's time
- →Building companies without losing the family
- →Becoming a better problem solver
In the news.
Derek has been covered by CBS 6 Richmond, NBC 12 and the Mecklenburg press for his role in two Interstate 85 incidents and for the Move Over Law awareness campaign he proposed and helped fund.
WTVR CBS 6 Richmond
Coverage of the Interstate 85 crash and the department's response.
Read the original ↗WWBT NBC 12 On Your Side
Reporting on the two firefighters nearly injured working the scene.
Read the original ↗WTVR CBS 6 — Move Over Law
Statewide safety campaign with AAA Mid-Atlantic, Drive Smart Virginia, and VDOT.
Read the original ↗SoVaNOW News and Record
Local Mecklenburg coverage of the near miss on the interstate.
Read the original ↗Headshots & photography
High resolution business and fire service images available on request.
Request the photo pack →Sitting on a decision you cannot make alone?
Sixty minutes, one on one. A written summary within three business days. Straight answers, including when the answer is do not spend the money.